Risk of Microplastics in Plant-Based Pet Foods MUCH Lower

There is no risk of bioaccumulated microplastics with our pure wholefood recipes, and our trays come in sustainable cardboard boxes with NO plastic!

Updated on
Bowl of plant-based Green Crunch with dog

What a bold statement to make about plant-based pet foods being low risk when the risk of microplastics was found to affect over 75% of pet foods as shown by the BBC article below.

Microplastics in over 75% of pet food, study finds
Not only is this microplastics risk affecting the health and lifespan of our dogs and cats, but we even have risk to our wildlife being exposed too as shown from this article.
Microplastics in pet food affecting hedgehogs

Where does the microplastic risk come from?

Like so many of you, we sat down as a family in 2001 to watch Sir David's Attenborough's Blue Planet. We were shocked then by how much plastic affects our ocean from fishing nets left in the sea to waste from our plastic overuse being pumped into the oceans.

What is more shocking is that the Blue Planet documentary aired 25 years ago (!). Can you imagine now after 25 years, how much worse our ocean is?!

It is now a fact that fish and marine life feed on these microplastics that are so abundant in the ocean, which end up in their fat, liver and kidneys!

We then have a process called BIOACCUMULATION where the byproducts of the fishing industry (yes fish kidneys, livers and fat) are crushed up to either be put directly into dog and cat food, or fed to chickens to allow for the extremely fast growth we now expect with Frankenchickens.

The livers and kidneys of the fish are the 'excretory organs' that have the function of getting rid of toxins in the body of a fish, so the fat, liver and kidneys will have a far greater accumulation of these microplastics (as well as the heavy metals that they get also from our increasingly affected oceans).

(Read here why cats should NEVER be fed fish as land mammals who never in their history swam in water to catch their food!!!)

And the process of BIOACCUMULATION of these microplastics, doesn't stop at our chickens, it continues into our pigs!

The affected livers and kidneys and fat of the Frankenchickens that are being produced today (enormous heavy fat chickens made to grow so fast for greater financial return), are either put into dog and cat food, or crushed up and fed to our omnivorous intensively farmed pigs, also made to grow extremely fast for greater financial return.

ALL of these microplastics and heavy metal contamination in our farmed pigs again accumulates in their excretory organs - livers and kidneys and fat which are used in almost every type of meat-based dog and cat food where they mention 'meat and animal derivatives' as an ingredient.

Some companies specify the actual organs of the pig used in the food such as Purina Renal diet that includes the liver of pigs for dogs with kidney disease needing a pure diet to enhance the kidney function of our affected dogs (but fed pig liver):

Purina Renal diet uses pig heart and livers as an ingredient
We also have Hills Oncology diet for dogs with cancer needing a pure diet to fight the cancer, using pork liver specified as one of their ingredients.Hills Oncology diet uses pork

The ingredient that NO one is talking about!

This could explain why microplastics have been found to affect over 75% of all pet foods due to this process of BIOACCUMULATION from our ocean fish byproducts being fed to our chickens, which in turn are being fed to the pigs and each time the very organs that try to get rid of the microplastics in the body of the fish, chicken or pig....these are used in meat-based pet foods such as the liver, fat and kidneys!
It is understandable why pure plant-based ingredients are found to be much healthier than meat-based byproducts from a published study. (Zafalon et al) 

What about raw feeding and microplastic risk?

The biggest selling point that the dangerous trend of feeding dogs and cats with raw food; is that it is 'natural'!

The very organs used in raw feeding are exactly those mentioned above - liver, kidneys, tripe - all full of these BIOACCUMULATED toxins and microplastics from the intensively farmed animals being fed fishmeal to make them grow faster (yes even our herbivorous cattle that are intensively raised for meat are fed fishmeal full of microplastics so that they too grow as fast as possible)

Those of you around in the 90's will remember the horrors of mass slaughter of cows affected by mad cow disease caused by these cattle being fed mashed up brains of other cattle in their feed!!!

Dog with raw food
With raw feeding, we also have the added concern about bacterial contamination as our dogs are NOT wolves and should NOT be fed like wolves. 
They share our beds, lick our faces and the risks involved with raw feeding make me shudder as a passionate plant powered vet who still listens to people raw feed and not want to change - the worst trend to affect our dogs and cats with absolutely NO positives for their health, our health and our planet's health (right rant over and back to microplastics!!!)

What other contamination from plastic do we have with meat-based pet foods?

Please remember that our farmed cattle and dairy cows (yes sent to slaughter at the age of 6 when their milk production drops and their fertility drops and they cannot produce that calf every year after being artificially inseminated with semen from a bull that has to undergo electro ejaculation - painful and unnecessary when we have delicious plant-based milks)....but again I am getting distracted from microplastics!

Now every one of our cows and cattle used for meat or dairy, are never given names as they are commodities, and only given numbers so they can be followed from birth to growth to slaughter. They are labelled with plastic ear tags!

Some even have 2 plastic ear tags to make this process easier for the farmers and abattoir workers when the cattle are led for slaughter and onto trucks to be able to recognise them from any side.

Cattle with plastic eartags
We have UK Pet Foods give us false information that it is 'sustainable' to use the parts of an animal not being used for human consumption, or these parts would go to waste (proved to be untrue by this study showing how MORE animals are being killed and farmed for their valuable byproducts).
With such value placed on the 'byproducts' of the animal agriculture industry, EVERY part of the animal is used to ensure maximum financial return....and that includes the skulls, skin and yes the ears that are ground up to be used in pet food along with all those plastic ear tags!
We always hope when we recycle our home waste, that there is someone diligently removing the metal lid from our glass jars, or separating the hard plastic from the paper, but the reality is that this absolutely does not happen.
The same in the abattoir - who is going to remove those plastic ear tags pierced into the skin to never fall out of the live animal?! Those thick plastic ear tags and the ears go straight into meat-based cheap pet foods and again add to the microplastic risk that your meat-based dog and cat is exposed to day after day and meal after meal!!
JBK heart

Thank goodness for the perfect solution - NO fish or animal byproducts used in pure plant-based pet foods!

Yes, we only use pure plant ingredients in ALL of the foods that we stock at Just Be Kind, AND we have gone one step further by ensuring that the foods we stock and sell are all made from non-GMO ingredients to reduce pesticide risk!

NO soya is used in any of our products as organic soya is VERY expensive to use and we greatly admire ethical vegan company Benevo for using organically sourced non-GMO soya in their dry puppy food.

It took us a few years to register our UK's Best Wet Food trays Give A Dog A Bean, Jumping Jack and Gentle Rosie with the Vegan Society - we didn't want to compromise on quality and only the best organic ingredients are used for your dog (especially those with sensitivities or kidney issues needing a pure diet).

There is NO risk of bioaccumulated microplastics with our pure wholefood plant-based recipes, AND we did away with having our 3 recipes in tins as tins come packaged with plastic, whereas our trays come in sustainable cardboard boxes with NO plastic - hurrah! 💚

Give a Dog A Bean, Jumping Jack and Gentle Rosie trays

Why we produced Omega 3 Daily Algae Oil

Now that you have a better understanding of the concern with feeding both our dogs and cats with fish oils with the toxin build up and microplastic risk, you can see why we sourced a company in The Netherlands to make our pure Omega 3 Algae oil with NO contamination risk as it is made from Algae grown enormously sustainably on land!!

Our Omega 3 Daily is superior to anything on the market for us  - yes only the best for your animals that share your home !!

Sustainable farming of microalgae
When nutrition is done right, you don’t necessarily notice it working — you just notice your dog thriving. No noise, no stress, no vet appointments. To benefit our environment and farmed animals too is a massive bonus!
- Dr Arielle Plant Powered Vet 
Published on Updated on

You May Also Like